April 2-Back to the start

We started from the farm on September 2, 2006, and here we are home again on April 2, 2007. Exactly seven months. It was the perfect second honeymoon and I completely recommend taking one. We loved the motorhome, the people we met, and the adventures we had. Now Gene is back to work, I'm trying to get our home unpacked, and Elsie is in heaven chasing geese at the farm. Quite a culture shock. We will probably just live in the motorhome for awhile until I get the house ready for us. I'm sure we'll be spending every free moment driving up and down I-5 to watch Caroline grow until we get to meet little Toy sometime in May. We will certainly drive Caroline and Marc crazy, but we are totally excited about our next adventure as Gramma and Grampa. Everyone keeps asking us what was our favorite spot...and that's a tough question to answer, but here are my votes:
Best beach: Topsail Hill State Park, Florida
Best town: Charleston, South Carolina
Best food: Dinner at Uncle Phil and Virginia's house
Worst food: Thelma's in Atlanta, Georgia
Best history: Little Bighorn, Montana & Gettysburg, Pennsylvania & Concord, Massachusetts
Best news from home: Caroline and Marc told us that they were "with child" on September 11 (only 9 days into the trip!) while we were in Williamsburg, Iowa.
Funniest drives: Smugglers Notch, V.T. & Manahattan, on a dark, rainy night.

April 1-Three Tree

Finally, our own beach...and it really is the best in the world. The best people too! Mom made us a wonderful welcome home dinner of salmon and asparagus (our absolute favorite), and Laura and Hank joined us. Its sad to be at the end of our adventure, but wonderful to have hugged the immediate family again.

March 31-Pacific Beach, WA

Driving up I-5 was too much for Gene. I don't think either of us is ready for the trip to be over. So...we suddenly decided to head to our favorite ocean beach for one last night of fun. As always, Pacific Beach was beautiful. We love the long walks on the beach. Elsie runs around like she's never had such freedom. The digging is perfect and she leaves holes everywhere. I played with the new camera and the sunset was a wonderful test subject!

March 30-Goodbye Springfield

We had a fabulous week with Caroline and Marc. Lots of yummy meals. Lots of tummy touching. We walked the dogs several times at Darby Ranch. Lots of mud! Lots of puppy washing!

March 26-Mt. Toy, Oregon

Did you think we were lost? Sorry. We had an absolutely gorgeous drive across Oregon, from the far south-east corner to Bend. Beautiful sunny weather, billowy clouds in the sky, the Sisters and Mount Bachelor bright, clear, and snowcovered...getting bigger and bigger by the hour. We stopped to take pictures and the camera decided the trip was over. No lights came on and no matter how many buttons we pushed the poor thing just sat like a brick. I believe we actually wore it out! So, no beautiful skylines to share, but we have been shopping already, trying to find a replacement so never-fear! We got to Bend excited to rent ski equipment and hit the slopes (so that we wouldn't be skunked this year), but it turns out that its spring vacation in Oregon and the slopes are packed. I despise skiing in crowds so we just kept heading west. Made it to Mt. Toy (AKA Eugene) before Caroline even got home from her trip to Dallas. Mt. Toy is impressive, thats for sure. We couldn't wait to see all the family and get to hug Lentil...not to mention Caroline and Marc. We just came back from a party at Ken and Laura's with EVERYONE! Using a camera from Costco that I wanted to try out I was able to take some goofy pictures. Aren't the kids cute????? You can see why we had to keep driving west. They are all just as wonderful as ever and we have really missed them (K,L,K,E,C,&K too of course). Nice and rainy here so it feels just like home! The camera flunks so I'll try another before I settle on one.

March 22-"Magnificent Desolation"-Death Valley, CA

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11, described the lunar surface as "magnificent desolation"...well, maybe they did film the moon walks at Death Valley! I thought this place would be flat, dry, hot, and dusty. Not so! Well, it is dry--they get less than 2 inches of rainfall a year. We had a lovely day, with a nice breeze so the temperature was only in the 80's (compared to Big Bend it was chilly). When you come into the park you drop from about 4,000 feet from the mountains that surround it to the desert floor. Most of the valley is below sea level, and at one spot its acutally 282 feet below. Its the lowest point in the western hemisphere. The colors of the valley, mountains, and sky are amazing...guess thats what they call "earth tones". All different browns, oranges, grays, even red and tourquoise. I thought of you Hank--you would need quite an artists palate to paint this place! We should have spent more time here because we didn't see the huge sand dunes that are to the north...but the urge to head west is still propelling us towards family and friends.

March 19 and 20- Lake Havasu and Bob!

This lake is paradise in the middle of the desert. Bob certainly knows how to pick his homesites! He has a comfy condo here and the powers that be allowed us to park our RV practically outside his front door. Another free spot, yeah! We can even see the lake from our window. We toured Havasu City in Bob's '65 GTO and then spent the afternoon on the lake in his boat. Really heavenly! The clouds even rolled in just enough to cool the place off a bit...just for us! I could easily spend my days floating around the lake, reading silly novels. Elsie thought it was wonderful too as she has been irritated by the desert. She swam several times and enjoyed her normal barking and chasing sticks routine. Bob has been feeding us like the King and Queen too. Gene hasn't had a steak since Washington DC, so he attacked it with a vengance. We are just lounging around this morning and will take down the satelitte dish and head north before too long. Bob is about to start packing and moving the cars up to Osooyoos before too long. This is a WONDERFUL place to visit...thanks Bob!

March 17- Carlsbad Caverns, NM

We’ve been underground all day! Walked about four miles inside the caverns…down to 850 feet below ground. We even ate lunch underground as they have a lunchroom where you can buy sandwiches and pop at 550 feet. We packed our own but it was pretty strange to sit at picnic tables in the dark and eat your bagel! It’s even darker when they turn out the lights (which they do on some of the tours). I took lots of photos, but it’s really hard to get good ones without a tripod. Hopefully mind won’t look blurry when they get to the blog. I’ve already deleted lots of them. We left the rig at Guadalupe National Park and drove the jeep up to Carlsbad (about 35 miles) so we will be heading out in the morning. The plan is to try to get to Cousin Bob’s before too long. At the moment Gene is watching the Cougars play against Vanderbilt in the NCAA tournament. Lots of screaming!

March 16-Guadalupe National Park, TX

We had a little trouble with the rig overheating on our drive to Carlsbad Caverns so we lost a day on the road. Had to stop and pressure wash the radiator to get things to cool down. Too much dust in Texas I guess. We got fabulous views of El Capitan on the way into the park. We are now surrounded by the Guadalupe Mountains at a small campground inside the National Park. The mountains themselves were formed as an ancient marine fossil reef 260-270 million years ago. At that time a huge tropical ocean covered portions of Texas and New Mexico (that’s what formed CCaverns as well). Eventually the sea evaporated and the reef was buried in sediments and mineral salts, until it was uplifted forming the mountains. They are incredibly beautiful and go straight up three thousand feet, on three sides of our campground. Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8749 feet, is right in front of us. The campground itself is already at 5,700 feet so it’s nice and cool up here. Whew. If you hike the area I gather you can find fossilized evidence of the sea. I’ve been sitting here looking at the most incredible view writing a paper about cognitive development in young children instead of exploring…good thing I like my coursework! Carlsbad Caverns are only 35 miles away so we will drive up there tomorrow and leave the rig here (don’t want to push our luck with any more overheating).

We just returned from a short hike and the nature talk at the visitor center. Great talk with beautiful slides of the area at all different seasons. He explained all the plants and animals in the area. Very well done talk. Nice and dark when the talk was over so the walk back to the campground was amazing. The sky is REALLY dark in Texas so the stars really shine. The only constellations I remember are the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia…Dad would be ashamed of me! He would have loved this night sky though. A telescope would be wonderful up here.